3 Attend City Hearing On Housing Loans

July 18, 1986|The Morning Call

Three people turned out last night for a public hearing on Allentown's proposed low-interest loan program to rehabilitate multifamily rental properties.

Afterward, Debra Laubach, a city planner who conducted the hearing, submitted the city's application for a $55,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to carry out the program.

Loans as low as 3 percent are provided to owners to fix up their properties in certain sections of the city.

Among the stipulations are that the owner match the grant and that he have the properties inspected for building code violations. The maximum loan is $5,000 per unit.

Laubach said if a three-unit apartment building needs $30,000 in repairs, the program could provide a low-interest loan of $15,000. The owner would be expected to match the amount with a conventional bank loan or personal equity.

The general boundaries where the program is effective are 22nd Street on the west, The Reading Co. railroad line along Trout Creek Park on the south; Club Avenue on the east, and the northern city limit.

Laubach said the program is directed to providing decent housing for families at places with two or more bedroom units. She said the city will try to have at least 70 percent of the improved units for low-income tenants.

HUD requires that assisted projects be in neighborhoods where the median income does not exceed 80 percent of the median income for the area and where rent is affordable to low-income families.

Section 8 certificates for federal rental assistance are available for families that qualify.

Preference for the loans will be given to applications where at least 70 percent of the units in a building are occupied by Section 8 eligible tenants.